The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-06-17
ST. STEPHEN.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE's DISCOURSE
At THE TABERNACLE.

Five DiSi"o As~puScAe GxulUlteO IN M
Martyrdom-Gsxing into Hssven-Look
ing ut Christ-stoncd-His Dying Prayer
Asleep.
BROOKLYN, June l2.-This morning at til,
tabernacle the Rev. T.. De Witt Talmage, d
D., expounded appropriate passages of script
ure after which the congregation sang tn,
favorite hymn: "There is rest for the weary,
The reverend doctors text was Acts vii, $500
"Behold, see the heavens opened, and the Sor
of Man standing on the right hand of God
Then they cried out with loud voice and
stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one
accord, and cast him out Of the city, and
stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their
clothes tn young mans feet whose name was
Saul And they stoned Stephen, calling upon
God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with
loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, he fell
asleep" The preacher said:
Stephen had been preaching rousing ser.
mon, and the people could not stand it,
They resolved to do as men sometimes would
like to do in this day, if they dared, with
some plain preacher of righteousness-k
him. The only way to silence this man was
to knock the breath out of him. So they
rushed Stephen out of the gates Of the city,
and with curse, and whoop. and below they
brought him to the cliff, as was the custom
when they wanted to take away life by ston-
ing Having brought him to the edge of the
cliff they pushed him off. After he had fall
en- they'came and looked down. and seeing
that he was not yet dead, they began to drop
stones upon him, stone after stone, stone after
stone. Amid this horrible rain of missiles,
Stephen chambers up on his knees and folds
his hands, while the blood drips from his
temples to his cheeks, from his cheeks to his
garments, from his garments to the ground;
and then, looking up, he makes two prayers,
one TOR himself and one for his murderers
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit:" that was for
himself. lord, lay not this sin to their
charges" that was for his assailants. Then,
from pain and loss Of blood, he swooned
away and fell asleep. 3.
want to show you to-day five pictures
Stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen Looking
at Christ, Stephen stoned, Stephen in his dy-
ing prayer, Stephen asleep
First, look at Stephen gazing into heaven.
Before you take a leap you want to know
where you are going to land. Before you
climb ladder you want to know to what
point the ladder reaches And it was right
that Stephen, within a few moments of
heaven, should be gazing into it. We would
all do well to be found i'll the same posture.
There is enough in heaven to keep us gazing.
A man of large wealth may have statuary in
the hall, and paintings in the sitting room,
and works of art in all parts of the house;
but he has the chief pictures in the art gal
|ery, aud there, hour after hour, you walk
with catalogue and glass and ever increasing
admiration. Well, heaven is the gallery
where God has gathered the chief treasures
Of his realm. The whole universe is his
palace. In this lower room where we stop
here are many adernments-tessellated floor
If amethyst and blossom, and on the winding
loud stairs are stretched out canvas on which
azure, and purple, and saffron, and
gold. But heaven il the gallery in which the I
chief glories are gathered. There are the
brightest robes, There are the richest crowns.
There are the highest exhilarations. John
says of it: "The kings Of the earth shall
bring their honor and glory into it."
And see the procession forming; and in
the line come all empires, and the stars spring
up into All arch for the hosts to march under.
They keep step to the sound of earthquake
and the pitch of avalanche from the noun
tains, and the flag they bear is the flame of a
world, and all heaven turns out
with harps and trumpets and myriad voiced
reclamation of angelic dominion to welcome
chem in, and SO the kings of the earth bring
their honor and glory into it. Do you won
der that good people often stand like Stephen,
looking into heavena We have great many
friends there. There is not a man in this
house to-day SO isolated in life but there is
some one in heaven with whom he once shook
hands. As man gets older the number of
his celestial acquaintance very rapidly
multiplies. We have not had one glimpse of
Them since the night we kissed them goodby
and they went away; but still we stand
gazing at heaven. Az when some of our
friends 60 across the sea we stand on the
lock or on the steamtug and watch them.
md after awhile the hulk of the vessel dis
appears, and then there is only a patch of |
all on the sky, and soon she is gone, and they
ire all out Of sight, and yet we stand looking
n the same direction; SO when our friends 20 |
way from us into the future world we keep |
ooking down through the Narrows, and gaz.
ng and gazing as though we expected that
hey would come out and stand on some
,vening cloud, and give us one glimpse of
heir blissful and TRANSPORTED faces. While
you long to join their companionshp, and
he years and the days go with such tedium
hat they break your heart, and the viper Of
,ain and sorrow and bereavement keeps
,nawing at your vitals, you still stand, like
Stephen, gazing into heaven. You wonder if
hey have changed since you saw them last.
You wonder if they would recognize your
ace now, SO changed has it been with trouble.
You wonder if, amid tho myriad delights
hey have, they care as much for you as they
lsed to. when they gave you helping hand
md put their shoulder under your burdens
You wonder if they look any older; and
ometimes, in the eveningtide, when the
ouse is all quiet, you wonder if you should
all them by their first name if they would
lot answer, and perhaps sometimes you do
make the experiment, and when no one but
iod and yourself are there you distinctly
all their names, and listen and wait, and sit
azing into heaven.
Pass on now and see Stephen looking upon
,hrist My text says he saw the Son of man
t the right hand Of God. Just how Christ
ooked in this world, just how he looks in
eaven, we cannot say. A writer in the time
( Christ says, describing the Saviour's per-
onal appearance, that he had blue eyes and
ght complexion, and very graceful struc-
ure; but suppose it was all guess work.
he painters of the different ages have tried
n imagine the features of Christ and mt |